FIFA World Cup 2018: Brazil Midfielder Fred Suffers Ankle Injury

While Neymar seems to be recovering from his foot injury and looks set to play in Brazil's last pre-World Cup friendly at Austria on Sunday, midfielder Fred left training on Thursday in pain after a tackle. Brazil coach Tite placed Neymar in his main formation during training in London and removed midfielder Fernandinho from the starting line-up. On Sunday, Neymar joined the team during the break against Croatia. He scored the first goal of the game after dribbling past two opponents and was in much better form than coach Tite expected.

Midfielder Fred, who is also one of Tite's options for Fernandinho's spot, was forced out of the training after a tackle by Casemiro affected his right ankle.

Fred is on the cusp of a move to Manchester United, who announced this week they had reached an agreement with Shakhtar Donetsk to sign the 25-year-old for a fee reported to exceed 50 million pounds.

The Brazil team doctor, Rodrigo Lasmar, said: "Today Fred had trauma in his ankle but it is too early to say anything about it. Tomorrow we watch to see what happens and then decide if we need to do any exams or not but at the moment it is too early to say anything about him."

Brazil players have praised the intense training sessions but critics say Tite's hard-line approach could affect the future of his players in the World Cup.

Midfielder Renato Augusto has also been sidelined since last week due to pain in his right knee.

Brazil's two-week training camp in London ends on Friday, when the team travels to Austria for the friendly.

Brazil begin their Group E campaign on June 17 against Switzerland in Rostov before matches against Costa Rica in St Petersburg and Serbia in Moscow.

Topics mentioned in this article

Brazil Neymar Football 2018 FIFA World Cup